Malich's is billed as a battle of wits, namely between the intelligence of the caster and target, and inflicts damage based on the relative strengths of psyches. Since a proper Wizard should be more intelligent than most, they should be able to hurt the target.

Realistically however, that all sounds good, but the amount of damage you can do in this battle is highly limited, and it is doubtful that much more than 50 hp can be inflicted by even the most intelligent wizard.

 

Essentially pointless for all that it uses no components. Likely only useful at very low levels for trying to improve your channeling, or perhaps if you have a pesky rat problem.